Alfa Romeo is to become Britain’s first vehicle manufacturer to offer new car buyers a platform to share their car with others and make money.

The industry-first peer-to-peer car sharing solution is called U-Go. It is being run by Leasys, a subsidiary of parent company FCA’s in-house bank.

Owners will be able to offset the monthly lease or PCP cost by sharing their car for anything from a few hours to a few days. Operating in a similar way to room-sharing service Airbnb, the platform on ugo.leasys.com matches renters with car owners.

Or, in U-Go lingo, ‘Players’ (who own the cars) with ‘Users’, who can locate a car by city and date. Everything, including pick-up, drop-off and payments, is managed through the U-Go Player app.

Naturally, there’s also a peer-to-peer rating system.

The scheme promises to be both cheaper and more flexible than traditional car rental, as it can be extra-responsive to local mobility needs. It also makes car owners money – so they could, for example, offset the cost of a model upgrade by making the difference back each month through U-Go.

Already live in Italy, the scheme will launch in the UK in September 2019. FCA is targeting fast growth for the new platform and says it will reach 50,000 registered users by 2021.

In the future, it seems we may not simply own cars, but also make money by sharing them with others when we’re not using them…

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